AX8 vs LR Baggs Venuefor Acoustic work

Sonnyducks

Sonnyducks

Member
I play acoustic every week for my church. For years I just go direct. Today we had a guest group play service and the guitar player was using a LR Baggs Venue DI. This got me thinking if the AX8 could do something simiar. Would be interested if any of you guys have experience using your AX8 for acoustic work or have experience with the Venue. Have been thinking of picking up an AX8 but since I mostly play acoustic it has been hard to justify just just at home electric work.
 
Unless you really have to have the AX8 the LR baggs is a good unit and I would probably stick with it and some outboard effects.

20West here on the board uses a Piezo equipped PRS and he uses an IR of a 900 series Taylor in the AX8 that sounds amazing through it. That said if all you have are Acoustics it would mean more expense but you have greater flexibility and are not stuck just playing an Acoustic guitar.
 
Well, more gear is always better :D but seriously the AX8 is a killer add to any musician's toolbox even though it's mainly geared towards electric guitar sounds. So really it's a budget thing, wants versus needs. I tend to be one of those that will buy something even if I don't need it but might use it in the near future. But even then in this situation most of the time I will talk myself out of it.
 
I have a Lyric installed in my old Guild F50. I use it with a Para D.I. with great results.

I also have a preset to run it through my AX8. Also excellent sound, with all the great effects.

I will be keeping both. If I don't need effects, the DI is that much smaller, and I have a clip on tuner and a volume control on the guitar.
 
I hate the venue, it made my Martin OM42 sound sterile cold and hard.

The Ax8 with the tube pre SIM is a million times better.

If you want something similar to the venue, the Radial PZ-pre is also much better than the venue. Although, after trying my acoustic with Ax8, I will sell my PZ pre (sold the venue years ago)
 
I use the ax8 on my acoustic gigs and love it. Preamp, comp,
Eq, chorus/verb, pitch for pseudo 12 string and a little delay w/ boost for soloing over the looper. All in one compact easy to setup box with balanced xlr out.

I have scene 1/2 on F1 and delay mix on an expression. This way when in loop mode I can switch to a lead setting and blend just the right amount of delay.

If you plan on using the power of the ax8 it's a great choice but could be overkill if your requirements are more basic
 
Yeah, I doubt I would use all the power of the AX8 for acoustic gigs but it does give me some flexibility in terms of opening me up to play electric on some songs I guess. I do like the thought of having 1 pedal for both set ups.
 
I play acoustic one day a week and I use the Ax for it. I was using a crappy acoustic until recently and had a preset with comp, tube pre amp model
Peq and verb. I use an Anderson Crowdster now and I use comp, filter block (set to null to get my level up),reverb and delay. I love it
 
I would get the AX8. It opens you up to a super highway of creativity and fun!
I bought the AX8 for my electric duties at church. But the first call I got was to do an acoustic service outside.
I spent a little time creating a patch for my Taylor, and it turned out real nice!
I have been through a ton of gear over the years trying to get a good sound out of piezo pickups.
I am picky about tone. The AX8 is the best unit I have used.
 
The AX8 is an excellent tool for acoustic. True, I don't have the need for a bazillion presets when using an acoustic-truth be told I use up to 3- but the quality of the processing in the AX8 for whatever your setup is a no brainier to me. Added bonus, an electric preset is a foot switch away.
The para eq in the ax8 is great and is the main component of my acoustic tone.
If you have the means, it's a great tool.
 
I have a a few acoustic songs in our regular set. I just swap guitars and patches and the FOH guy doesn't have to do anything. ! channel strip for me for the night! My sound comes out beautifully through the AX8 for Electric and Acoustic Guitars. Love it.
 
I found the three or four acoustic IRs on the axechange site quite usable. I remember a Taylor and a Larrivee IR that give me the acoustic amp tone and let my acoustic cut through pretty well. Anyone else who uses acoustic IRs instead of relying on the tube preamp and the EQ block of the ax8?
 
I use the AX8 with my acoustic. Like a lot of folks who have posted, I don't need a ton of effects, but I do need a delay, a reverb, a tuner, a preamp, an eq, and a lead switch, and by the time I've put all that together, it would be a pedalboard about the size of the AX8 and far less tidy, convenient, and flexible.

Maybe most important, I used my Axe-FX II to do a tone match of my undersaddle pickup (K&K Pure Mini, which sounds pretty decent by itself) with the miked guitar, then exported that to a cab, which I loaded in the AX8. It sounds great!
 
I have a Taylor T5z and I want to be able to switch between Electric and acoustic. I too play in church. If I come up with a good acoustic patch I will share it. I have a couple acoustic Taylor IRs but they are in wav format so I have to start searching. I am going to try to pick a real clean amp and try to adjust it for a full range found also. On my Helix I have both but the Taylor IRs sound best.
 
If you have IRs in wav format, you should just use CabLab Lite (free) to convert them to the native Ax8 format. It works like a charm.
 
Smittefar said:
If you have IRs in wav format, you should just use CabLab Lite (free) to convert them to the native Ax8 format. It works like a charm.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was going to post about conversion. It seems like everything I found on a search was no longer available. One thing I loved about my Redwirez was that they came in both formats. They can be overwhelming though as they have a dozen or two mics and then irs with the mucin 20 or better positions from the cap, edge, cone, etc all at different distances. I am going to try that conversion for my Taylor IR. The Fremen presets had an acoustic sim I am going to base mine off of.
 
scottp said:
I would get the AX8. It opens you up to a super highway of creativity and fun!
I bought the AX8 for my electric duties at church. But the first call I got was to do an acoustic service outside.
I spent a little time creating a patch for my Taylor, and it turned out real nice!
I have been through a ton of gear over the years trying to get a good sound out of piezo pickups.
I am picky about tone. The AX8 is the best unit I have used.
Click to expand...
I've also developed a few patches for my acoustics through my AX8 and am curious what you've come up with. Would you be interested in doing a patch swap?

Let me know. I'd like to see/hear how others are getting their acoustic sounds with the AX8. Most of my time seems to be spent hunting down and notching out feedback frequencies unfortunately. I'd be happy to see how others address this issue.
 
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